As the Denver Nuggets mulled their first-round decision on draft night Thursday, point guard Ty Lawson offered a few ideas of his own — while smoking a hookah.

A stream of Lawson and friends watching the draft and smoking was posted on Twitter Thursday evening. In the clip, Lawson tells a friend before the Nuggets’ first-round selection of Emmanuel Mudiay: “They’re probably gonna get Mudiay, then I’m gonna get a bunch of tweets about, ‘Yo, Ty, you’re getting traded.'”

Earlier in the clip, Lawson commented on Willie Cauley-Stein, the center out of Kentucky who was selected by the Sacramento Kings.

“Cauley-Stein getting drafted might mean Cousins is gone,” Lawson said of Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins. Lawson then sat back a inhaled the hookah as he awaited the Nuggets’ selection. He turned to the camera and said, “Tim Connelly, it was good.”

Later in the video, Lawson commented on the Nuggets’ 30-52 season, responding to a friend who claimed the Nuggets “suck.”

On June 25, 1997, former Colorado Buffaloes guard Chauncey Billups was drafted with the No. 3 overall pick in the NBA draft by the Boston Celtics at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, N.C.

If Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan and Utah’s Keith Van Horn, the No. 1 and 2 picks respectively, had elected to forgo their senior seasons in 1996, Billups could quite possibly have been the top overall pick in the draft.

He was already a legend in Colorado basketball. As a high school student at George Washington, the King of Park Hill was named Mr. Basketball three straight years (it would’ve been four, but there was no award his freshman year). In college, he led the Buffaloes to the NCAA Tournament, carrying CU to its first appearance and win in decades.

The draft is upon us, which means the endless rumors finally come to an end and actual moves can start to be made. The Nuggets, with many players who are coveted around the league, are as pivotal a team in this year’s draft as there is.

Trades they make, particularly any big ones, can reshape the direction of the draft.

What I know going into Thursday’s NBA draft is there is a ton of information floating around about what the Nuggets plan to do. With apologies to the great Peter King, Sports Illustrated and Monday Morning Quarterback columnist, here are five things I think going into Thursday’s NBA draft. Read more…

It’s not exactly John Elway telling Baltimore he’d play for the Yankees instead of spending a single second with the Colts, but Mario Hezonja’s father, Ronald, wasn’t giving the Nuggets a full stamp of approval, either.

Recently, Bleacher Report talked with Ronald Hezonja about places his son could land in Thursday’s NBA draft. “Super” Mario’s stock has been rising as the weeks have gone on. Read more…

“I have a sharp mind when it comes to that look, being able to look into somebody’s eyes to tell if they are going to be in the foxhole with you tonight or if they are not,” Iverson said Thursday night. “To me, I am a basketball genius and I really believe that, so at any capacity I could help this franchise, that is what I am going to do.”

He also touched on other topics during the interview, including a response to author Kent Babb’s new book “Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson.”

“They don’t even know about you, they don’t even care about you, so what are you concerning yourself for?” he said. “I am sick of defending myself and I am not going to keep on doing it.”

And on his former 76ers teammate Andre Iguodala (another former Nugget) winning the MVP of the NBA Finals, Iverson said: “I know so much about basketball, I knew he was going to be it.”

Iverson retired in 2013. An 11-time all-star, he played the majority of his career in Philadelphia with stops in Denver, Detroit and Memphis. He played in parts of three seasons (2006-09) with the Nuggets, averaging 25.6 points — the second-highest average for Denver behind Alex English.

On Wednesday, new Nuggets coach Michael Malone was given a chance to clarify his relationship with former Sacramento general manager Pete D’Alessandro, now back with the Nuggets as senior vice president of business.

In an interview with The Denver Post, Malone said there were a lot of misconceptions, and that the two are on good terms.

“You would be surprised how many messages I got when they hired Pete here, paraphrasing: ‘Ah, coach, that sucks. I really hoped you were going to get the Denver job, but that’s not going to happen now,'” Malone said. “People don’t realize, Pete and I never had any problems.”

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James sits on the bench during the second half of Game 5 of basketball’s NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, June 14, 2015. (Eric Risberg, The Associated Press)

LeBron James is having one of the greatest NBA Final performances ever.

With injuries to stars Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, James is putting up video-game-esque averages: 36.6 points, 13.2 rebounds and 9.4 assists. Seeing a player on a losing team win the Finals most valuable player award is rare, but James is making a powerful case.

(In case you’re wondering: Jerry West is the only NBA Finals MVP from a losing team, when the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Boston Celtics in the 1968-69 season.)

James is single-handledly carrying the Cavaliers right now, imposing his will to lead Cleveland as far as he has. Without him, they would’ve been swept, an afterthought in the Warriors’ march to victory.

Forget the Cavs, this is King James vs. Golden State.

Here’s a look at James’ production numbers:

LeBron’s averages

A look at how James has fared in the Finals versus the rest of the playoffs and the regular season.

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REB

AST

TO

MIN

PTS

NBA Finals

13.2

9.4

3.0

45.4

36.6

Rest of playoffs

10.1

8.1

4.4

40.8

27.6

Regular season

6.0

7.4

1.6

36.1

25.3

Increased workload

A look at James’ shooting in the NBA Finals versus the rest of the playoffs and the regular season.

FG

TEAM%

FGA

TEAM%

FG%

TEAM %

NBA Finals

13.0

39.6%

32.6

38.0%

39.9%

38.2%

Rest of playoffs

10.6

29.9%

24.9

30.4%

42.8%

43.6%

Regular season*

9.0

23.6%

18.5

22.7%

48.8%

47.0%

* James’ production vs. his team’s in the 69 games he played.

Wins vs. losses

How James’ numbers compare between the Cavs’ wins and losses in the NBA Finals.

The former Nuggets and now Cleveland Cavaliers guard showed up to Quicken Loans Arena for Game 4 of the NBA Finals riding a PhunkeeDuck, which is basically a remote-controlled, hands-free Segway (Note: The website was working sporadically this morning).

It wasn’t the most graceful entrance, as AP reporter Tom Withers pointed out.

Mike D’Antoni is a candidate to be the Nuggets’ next head coach. (Ethan Miller, Getty Images)

There is rarely a mention of Mike D’Antoni that doesn’t include “seven seconds or less,” a reference to his revolutionary style of play that made the Phoenix Suns one of the most exciting teams in the league in the mid-2000s. Led by point guard Steve Nash and complemented by Amar’e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion, the Suns brought a new brand of play to the NBA, with speed, pick-and-rolls and open 3s.

McCallum changed the game in his own right with the book and his near three decades of covering the NBA for SI. He’s he remained close to D’Antoni, and Nash, over the years, so when word got out that the Nuggets, with whom he started his NBA career in 1997, had interviewed D’Antoni for their head-coaching job, McCallum was kind of enough to offer his thoughts:

Do you think D’Antoni is opposed to a rebuild?

MCCALLUM: “Let’s preface this by saying as close as I am to him, I don’t know. But my best guess is that I can’t see him taking a rebuilding job. Essentially, the Knicks were a rebuilding job and, as weird as it sounds, the Lakers kind of turned into one. They were two not very good teams. The Knicks were clearly a rebuilding job. The Lakers job is tough to turn down, even if they have you and me in the backcourt.

“My answer to that is, I don’t know. We haven’t talked specifically — we always talk around this stuff — but it would surprise me to see him take a rebuilding job.”Read more…

Former Florida coach Billy Donovan became head coach of Oklahoma City on April 30. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

It was never overt, but the feeling just always seemed to be there.

Billy Donovan was still coach of the Florida Gators after their season ended in mid-March, but individuals within the program quickly began to feel as if it was his last.

“He never came out and said ‘I’m going to the NBA,'” Donovan’s former player, Michael Frazier, said. “But everybody had that feeling. It was just that air in the gym, that air in the facility and the locker room that coach might be leaving.” Read more…

On Wednesday, he got down to the business of dispelling some myths about his game.

“In college they kind of saw me as a low-post guy,” Avila said. “I can take the ball off the dribble a little bit, but I really want them to see that I can shoot the ball. I can dribble it as well, and just be an all-around player. That’s the biggest thing for me.” Read more…

There was a lot to discuss many nights during the Nuggets rough season.(Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

Pace matters. Altitude matters.

But were those things truly sacrificed under previous coach Brian Shaw?

Nuggets president, Josh Kroenke says no, and the raw pace numbers back him up. But something was amiss with a Nuggets offense that never could get humming in a way that made it hard to guard and prevented the fits and starts that plagued it for the better part of the last two seasons.

“We never tried to get away from playing fast,” Kroenke said. “We just weren’t playing very efficient. I think that was painfully obvious to anyone who watched. When I talk about the organizational fabric, the situations had gotten to a point where our fans… our fans deserve the best. They’ve been subject to a lot of things over the years — a couple of different styles of play, different players — we made it through the Carmelo (Anthony) saga. Now, we’re at a point where we really want to build a team that they are going to be proud of going forward, that can truly try to compete for something.” Read more…

The first day was arguably the happiest for then-Nuggets hire Brian Shaw in what turned out to be a roller coaster tenure in with the Nuggets. (Photo By John Leyba/The Denver Post)

So what went wrong?

Nuggets president Josh Kroenke had ambitious plans for the post-George Karl era, when he hired a bright-eyed assistant, Brian Shaw, to be the team’s latest head coach in 2013. Those plans included a vision of deep playoff marches under a coach who would tweak the equation enough to be more successful in the playoffs after many years of first round exits.

Only, Shaw never got to the playoffs.

And on top of that the foundation unraveled under him in a tumultuous time in Denver, eventually leading to his firing a mere 616 days into his tenure. Read more…

Even with the league’s worst record in 1991, they ended up with the No. 4 pick — completely out of the three lottery spots. It did turn out pretty good though — they selected future hall of famer Dikembe Mutombo. (h/t @NateTimmons)

On Tuesday, the Nuggets have a 4.3 percent chance to get the top-overall pick for the 2015 draft. Denver has never started from the No. 7 position before the lottery, however several names from teams that have that began in that slot have been in Nuggets uniforms, including George McCloud, Andre Miller, Kenyon Martin, Nene Hilario and Randy Foye.

In the 30-year history of the draft lottery, two teams from the No. 7 position have won the top-overall pick: New Jersey (2000 — Kenyon Martin) and Portland (2007 — Greg Oden). The spot has also yielded a No. 2 pick and a pair of No. 3’s.

The Nuggets may luck out and land a star player like Anfernee Hardaway or Stephen Curry. They may end up with someone who falls out of the league quickly, such as Ed O’Bannon or Joe Alexander. Or, more likely, someone in between.

Adding to the numerous trick shots he’s made all year, Curry connected on a 3/4-court buzzer-beater Friday against Memphis. Getting a loose ball with a little more than a second left in the third quarter, he lined up and drilled the really long-distance shot.

Splash.

The Warriors ended up beating the Grizzlies 108-95 to advance to the Western Conference finals. Curry had 32 points on 8-of-13 from beyond the 3-point line.

A documentary on former Denver Nuggets star Allen Iverson will air at 7 p.m. Saturday on Showtime.

The 87-minute documentary “Iverson” is director Zatella Beatty’s first effort at the helm.

From Showtime:

Feature-length documentary charting the rise of basketball great Allen Iverson, told largely in his own words. From a turbulent childhood of crushing poverty in Virginia to controversial run-ins with the law to iconic Philadelphia 76ers all star, his audacious rejection of convention and off the court embrace of hip-hop sent shockwaves through the NBA and influenced an entire generation.

Iverson played 14 seasons in the NBA with stops in Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit and Memphis. He finished with 24,368 points (23rd all-time) and averaged 26.7 points, good enough for seventh-best all time.

Paul Pierce #34 of the Washington Wizards waves to fans as he leaves the court following the Wizards 94-91 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at Verizon Center on May 15, 2015 in Washington. (Maddie Meyer, Getty Images)

Can you say deja vu?

Paul Pierce almost kept the Washington Wizards’ hopes alive Friday connecting on a 3-pointer at the end of Game 6 against the Atlanta Hawks. Unfortunate for the Wizards, the ball was still in Pierce’s hands as time ran out.

“Making a decision like this is never easy and is never done hastily, especially when you are dealing with a person of Monty Williams’ character. We thanked Monty for the tremendous work and commitment he made to our organization and the development of our young players, specifically Anthony Davis,” said Pelicans executive vice president Mickey Loomis.

Current Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly has ties to Williams. Read more…

Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) drives to the basket past Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James during the second half of Game 3 in a second-round NBA basketball playoff series in Chicago on Friday, May 8, 2015. The Bulls won 99-96. (Nam Y. Huh, The Associated Press)

First thing’s first: What. A. Series.

The Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers have been the most fun series to watch in the NBA playoffs so far this year. With the series tied 2-all, the point-differential between the two teams have totaled just seven points.

There are a couple of hurdles to get through, but the Nuggets are expected to have 2014 second-round draft pick Nikola Jokic signed and ready to roll prior to the Nuggets’ summer league in Las Vegas in July.

The 20-year-old Jokic, a 6-11, 253-pound Serbian center, played last season for KK Mega Vizura in the Adriatic League. He led the team in points (15.4), rebounds (9.2) and steals per game (1.5). He also averaged 3.5 assists for the team.

His play has been a constant source of interest and excitement in the Nuggets front office and scouting department. A high basketball IQ and a game that stretches out to the 3-point line — he shot 34.6 percent from there during the season — has the organization eager to see him against NBA-caliber players.

With a deal on the horizon, the Nuggets will get that opportunity.

Wilson Chandler contract guaranteed.

Wilson Chandler’s contract for next season is now fully guaranteed; the time for the Nuggets to release him at a fraction of the cost has now expired.

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.